Effect of Palm Oil By products on In Vitro Fermentation and Nutrient Digestibility Zain M.*, Rahman J., Khasrad Department of Animal Nutrition, Faculty of Animal Science, Andalas University Kampus Limau Manis, Padang-25163, Indonesia *Corresponding author: mardiati@faterna.unand.ac.id
Online published on 15 May, 2014. Abstract Indonesia has the most abundant palm oil by products such as oil palm fronds (OPF), palm oil sludge (POS) and palm kernel cake (PKC) that can be used as feed for ruminant. The aim of this experiment was to study the level of OPF, POS, PKC on in vitro digestibility and fermentation. Oil palm fronds was previously treated with 3% urea. The five treatments consisted of native grass as control and four levels of palm oil by products viz., A= native grass (control), B= 30% OPF + 50% POS + 20% PKC, C= 40% OPF + 40% POS + 20% PKC, D= 50% OPF+ 30% POS+ 20% PKC, and E= 60% OPF + 30% POS + 20% PKC. The formulated feeds were evaluated adopting Tilley and Terry method. The results indicated that increasing use OPF in diet caused lowered ammonia-N and total volatile fatty acids concentration in the incubation medium. There was a reduction (P<0.05) in the in vitro DM digestibility in all the OPF containing diet vis-à-vis the control. Digestibility of CP was also reduced (P<0.05) in diets C and D as compared to A; that of diet E was of the lowest. The digestibility all nutrients showed a gradual decline with increasing proportion of OPF in the formulation. It is concluded that use of OPF based oil palm by products reduced in vitro digestibility. Further animal trials are needed to confirm the optimal level of its use. Top Keywords Ammoniation, Degradability, Fermentation, Oil palm fronds, Palm oil by product. Top |